Two armies spend a campaign season looking at each other across a plain below a river confluence, and a mounted Takeda officer holds one ford at the eastern end of it with fewer men than the ground needs.
Among the dead of a dawn skirmish is a messenger carrying a small stamped plate: a well with three stems, cut badly into a storehouse post two generations ago by Aoyagi Nobumasa's own great-grandfather.
He puts it inside his coat instead of into the tally basket, and tells his lord's staff officer there was nothing on the body. It is the first lie of his service, and what disturbs him is how little it costs.
Across the water, a Uesugi retainer of the same blood decides the opposite — and has the family name written into the ledger in front of both armies.
